Mr. Levesque continues to work with his dissertation data. He is getting closer to producing some results using
Primer 7; the most advanced over the counter ecological statistical software available to scientists. He has also written an article for Florida Sportsman magazine that features a unique
archaeologist that replicate pre-historic fishing tools.

Mr. Levesque is also preparing for upcoming offshore fishing trip off Miami. He hopes to film his team catching
sailfish.

13 September 2017

The impacts of Hurricane Irma continue... Mr. Levesque's home is adjacent to a wetland. Given all the rain, the
system has backed up and is causing flooding issues. The Mr. Levesque's home is elevated; however, the garage is at ground level. Currently, his property is mostly underwater and water is
beginning to rise over the driveway. The water will likely enter the garage later today.

11 September 2017

Hurricane Irma, the largest storm in history, hit the State of Florida and traveled through Mr.
Levesque's home city of Tampa at about 0200 hrs. Thankfully, the storm lost energy once it made landfall around Naples, but it was still a Category I hurricane with sustain winds of 78 mph when
the storm passed through the Tampa Bay region. Mr. Levesque's home did not suffer any damage nor did he loose power during the ordeal. In many ways, they were "passed over".

Hurricane Irma traversing through the State of Florida; the largest storm in history.

Mr. Levesque, Marine Biologist, is currently preparing a presentation for the upcoming American Fisheries
Society annual meeting in Tampa, Florida (USA). The presentation will feature a recent study that he and his colleagues completed in 2015. The goal was to evaluate potential changes to commercial
fishing gear in the hope that it would reduce fishery interactions with the highly endangered Atlantic sturgeon in North Carolina and Virginia waters. Part I of the study was published in the
Peer J; a peer-reviewed scientific journal. An overview of the study is as follows:

Abstract

Bycatch of protected species in commercial fishing operations is
a primary concern to fishery managers because it threatens the conservation, protection, and recovery of fragile species, such as the Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus). One potential solution to reduce the risk associated with commercial
fishing operations is to design commercial fishing gear that is more selective in terms of interactions between Atlantic sturgeon and commercial fisheries. Given this conservation and management
need, the overarching goal was to reduce Atlantic sturgeon fishery interactions and maintain southern flounder (Paralichthys
lethostigma) catch in North Carolina. The specific objectives of this study were to design and evaluate the effectiveness of a modified
gillnet. Overall, the results proved that lowering the profile and amount of webbing had a beneficial impact at reducing Atlantic sturgeon incidental encounters and bycatch. The modified gillnet
reduced bycatch and Atlantic sturgeon encounters by 39.6% and 60.9%, respectively. Our design entangled 51.6% fewer southern flounder, which corresponded to a 48.9% reduction in total weight; the
modified gear entangled slightly larger southern flounder than the control gear. Our findings showed the number of Atlantic sturgeon encounters was positively associated with mean water depth,
with more Atlantic sturgeon encountered in deeper (5.1-6.3 m) than shallower waters; 75% were encountered at depths between 4.6 and 6.1 m. Most southern flounder (n= 518, 39.7%) were taken at a water depth between 3.76 and 5.0 m. This observation suggests that southern
flounder prefer slightly shallower waters than Atlantic sturgeon.

Mr. Juan C. Levesque, Marine Biologist, decided to take some time off from projects so that he could finish
writing his Ph.D dissertation. Juan is currently evaluating 25 years of standardized fisheries-independent monitoring data collected by the New Jersey Department of Natural Resources. His goal is
to investigate three anthropogenic influences on the ecology and population dynamics of the fishes in the mid-Atlantic Bight region of the United States. The title of Mr. Levesque's dissertation
is the "Population Dynamics and community Ecology of the nearshore fishes in the middle Atlantic Bight (USA)."

The first chapter will evaluate potential climate variability impacts to the fish community off the New Jersey
coast. As part of the chapter, Juan will also evaluate potential impacts to the fish community associated with Hurricane Sandy.

The second chapter will evaluate potential commercial fishing impacts to the fish community off the New
Jersey coast.

The last and final chapter will evaluate potential land-use (urban development) impacts to the fish
community in the Delaware River (New Jersey).

Juan C. Levesque, Fishery Biologist, teams up with Mr. Jaiden Maclean of Sea Ulcer to describe and evaluate the effectiveness of drones for
documenting coastal and highly migratory species off Australia. The main goal of the study is to describe and test whether this innovative gear can be used to document and assess the movements,
behavior, and population of coastal and highly migratory species off Australia.